'Ever Forward' finally refloated in Chesapeake Bay

A container ship the length of more than three football fields has finally been pried from the muddy bottom of the Chesapeake Bay, more than a month after it ran aground.

After two unsuccessful attempts to dislodge it, and the subsequent removal of about 500 of the 5,000 containers it was carrying, the Ever Forward was refloated by two barges and five tugboats.

A full moon and high spring tide helped the salvage vessels on Sunday morning as they pulled and pushed the massive ship from the mud, across a dredged hole and back into the shipping channel.

Once refloated, the Ever Forward was weighed down again by water tanks to ensure safe passage under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on its way to an anchorage off Annapolis, Maryland, The Baltimore Sun reported.

Marine inspectors will examine the ship’s hull before the US Coast Guard allows it to return to the Port of Baltimore to retrieve the offloaded containers.

The cargo ship, operated by Taiwan-based Evergreen Marine Corp, was travelling from Baltimore to Norfolk, Virginia, on March 13, when it ran aground just north of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

Officials have said the grounding did not result in injuries, damage or pollution. The Coast Guard has not said what caused the Ever Forward to run aground.

The ship became stuck outside the shipping channel and did not block marine navigation, unlike last year’s high-profile grounding in the Suez Canal of its sister vessel, the Ever Given.

That incident disrupted ship traffic and the global supply chain for days.

Salvage crews continued to offload containers from the Ever Forward until 10.30pm on Saturday. The containers were placed on to barges and taken to Baltimore’s Seagirt Marine Terminal.

After two failed efforts to free the more than 305-metre vessel, salvage experts determined this month that unloading some of the containers offered the best chance to refloat it.

Crews also continued dredging to a depth of 13 metres around the vessel.

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Three ways to limit your social media use

Clinical psychologist, Dr Saliha Afridi at The Lighthouse Arabia suggests three easy things you can do every day to cut back on the time you spend online.

1. Put the social media app in a folder on the second or third screen of your phone so it has to remain a conscious decision to open, rather than something your fingers gravitate towards without consideration.

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